Don’t Forget To Remember
By Fin Sheridan
When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”
So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”
Joshua 4:1-8
I wonder if forgetting things is the result of living in a fallen world. It’s certainly frustrating isn’t it? I forget things that are incredibly important that my wife tells me. I have incomplete memories of moments that I wish I could relive in full detail, rather than fuzzy black and white. My mum has the incredible ability to remember the birthdays of people that I went to primary school with – but can’t remember how to send a picture to me.
“These stones would serve as a sign, a reminder for them and their children of what God had done for them.”
God knew the people of Israel were bound to forget what he had done for them (he was right, as God always is) and so he told Joshua to set up some memorial stones. These stones would serve as a sign, a reminder for them and their children of what God had done for them.
It wasn’t just so that they could remember the “good old days” though. The reminder was when God delivered them through a situation that they were unable to solve themselves. The reason that God wanted to remember that was so that when they came up against another problem, another Jordan River that they needed God to part, they would remember that he’d done it before and he could do it again.
This year, why not find some ways to sent down some stones of your own? Whether something around your house, the wallpaper on your phone or something else creative? That way, you won’t forget to remember.
